Year: 2007

High Altitued Torpedo Mod Tested

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My guess is that because they are going from a prop (P-3) to a turbofan (Boeing 737 Derivative), they want to spend less time in low altitude, where turbofans are less efficient.

Lockheed backs LongShot for P-3 enhancement-05/06/2007-Washington DC-Flight International
By Graham Warwick Launch of a torpedo from high altitude using a wing kit has been demonstrated by the US Navy as it develops requirements for the capability, which is expected to extend the life of its anti-submarine warfare aircraft. Lockheed Martin’s high-altitude ASW weapons concept (HAAWC) was demonstrated on 24 May with the release of a Mk54 torpedo equipped with the company’s LongShot wing kit from the weapons bay of a US Navy Lockheed P-3 over the AUTEC test range in the Bahamas.
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Oh Crap.

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Let’s hope that this is hot pursuit and not an escalation.

This is not good.

Turkish Officials: Troops Enter Iraq

By SELCAN HACAOGLU

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Hundreds of Turkish troops crossed into northern Iraq early Wednesday to chase Kurdish guerrillas who attack Turkey from bases there, Turkish security officials said. One official said the troops had returned to their bases by the end of the day, but Turkey’s foreign minister denied they had ever entered Iraq.

The senior security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, characterized the raid as a “hot pursuit” raid that was limited in scope. They told The Associated Press it did not constitute the kind of large incursion that Turkish leaders have been discussing in recent weeks.

One official said several thousand troops went less than two miles inside Iraq and were still there in late afternoon. “It is a hot pursuit, not an incursion,” one official said.

Another official said by telephone it was “not a major offensive and the number of troops is not in the tens of thousands.” He also said the Turkish troops went into a remote, mountainous area.

A third official, based in the border region, said 600 commandos entered Iraq, and were backed up by several thousand troops along the border. He said the commandos raided Iraqi territory across from the Turkish border town of Cukurca before dawn after rebels opened fire from Iraqi soil on Turkish patrols.

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Kudos to Hizzoner Mike Bloomberg

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I still can’t believe that I just said that.

Seriously though, this “terrorist threat” is less serious and credible than my attempts to lose my virginity in high school, when I was president, and founder, of the wargaming club.

Needless to say, he’s not going to win any Republican friend, as the only issue the ‘Phants have left is screaming like a baby about terrorism.

wcbstv.com – Bloomberg On JFK Plot: ‘Stop Worrying, Get A Life’

Marcia Kramer
Reporting

(CBS) NEW YORK While questions continue to arise about the alleged plot to blow up a fuel pipeline beneath JFK Airport and surrounding neighborhoods, some are questioning why New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg hasn’t had a louder voice since the plot was foiled on Saturday.

On Monday, Bloomberg finally weighed in, but his response was not what some would have expected.

“There are lots of threats to you in the world. There’s the threat of a heart attack for genetic reasons. You can’t sit there and worry about everything. Get a life,” he said.

That “What, me worry?” attitude pretty much sums up Bloomberg’s advice to New Yorkers on the terror plot. As far as he was concerned, the professionals were on it, so New Yorkers shouldn’t let it tax their brains.

“You have a much greater danger of being hit by lightning than being struck by a terrorist,” he added.

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F%$# the Phone Company

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Specifically AT&T.

These guys are still thinking tarriff.

Save the Internet Blog » Blog Archive » Ed Whitacre: Gone But Not Forgotten

AT&T chief Ed Whitacre handed over the keys to his replacement Randall Stephenson yesterday, but not before giving a rousing pep talk to fellow executives in the company’s San Antonio board room. We just received exclusive video of the AT&T chairman’s parting speech.

>> Watch Big Ed’s Swan Song

Ed Whitacre Bids Fond Farewell:

Watch the Video

“There’s a problem. It’s called Net Neutrality,” Whitacre told the heirs to AT&T’s telecommunications empire. “Well, frankly, we say to hell with that. We’re gonna put up some toll booths and start charging admission.”

This statement echoes those made in the press by Whitacre and Stephenson over the last two years.

Despite claims of poverty whenever pressed to offer better services, these AT&T execs are privately gloating over more than $35 billion in gross profits over the last 12 months. Moreover, Whitacre (and now Stephenson) are pressuring Congress to allow them to provide privileged Web access to their customers to companies that pay them a special fee.

The phone and cable companies claim that this sort of discriminatory “double dipping” — charging both consumers and content providers — is necessary to provide the high-speed services that Americans demand. But it’s a fundamental shift in the neutral way the Internet has always worked. In essence, it takes away user choice — the most basic tenet of the Internet — and hands it to AT&T.

“Will Congress let us do it?” Whitacre asks his colleagues. “You bet they will — cuz we don’t call it cashin’ in. We call it ‘deregulation.’

Boeing Testing “Smart Rotor”

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Interestingly enough, Kaman has had a similar system, albeit not one with piezoelectrics, and likely with a much slower response time, on its intermeshing rotor helos for years.

Smart rotor on trial-05/06/2007-Flight International
Boeing is to test a smart helicopter rotor in a NASA windtunnel to verify the vibration, noise and performance improvements expected in forward flight with in-blade active flaps. The modified MD 900 commercial-helicopter rotor system was tested on a whirl tower in early 2004, demonstrating reduced hover vibration.

Testing of the 10.4m (34ft)-diameter rotor at NASA Ames Research Center’s 12 x 24m windtunnel in California will be conducted under a $3 million US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency contract. The smart-material actuated rotor was built and whirl-tested under a previous DARPA programme.


Each of the rotor’s five blades has an active trailing-edge flap

Talk About Screwing Up In Reverse.

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Since only hemorrhoids, cancer, and Dick Cheney are more popular than the Avignon president, it won’t cost him anything to pardon Libby.

Impeach Dick Cheney now. Impeach George Bush tomorrow.

Critical phrase in bold at end.

In the West Wing, Pardon Is A Topic Too Sensitive to Mention – washingtonpost.com

By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 6, 2007; Page A01

The sentence imposed on former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby yesterday put President Bush in the position of making a decision he has tried to avoid for months: Trigger a fresh political storm by pardoning a convicted perjurer or let one of the early architects of his administration head to prison.

The prospect of a pardon has become so sensitive inside the West Wing that top aides have been kept out of the loop, and even Bush friends have been told not to bring it up with the president. In any debate, officials expect Vice President Cheney to favor a pardon, while other aides worry about the political consequences of stepping into a case that stems from the origins of the Iraq war and renewing questions about the truthfulness of the Bush administration.

The White House publicly sought to defer the matter again yesterday, saying that Bush is “not going to intervene” for now. But U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton indicated that he is not inclined to let Libby remain free pending appeals, which means the issue could confront Bush in a matter of weeks when, barring a judicial change of heart, Cheney’s former chief of staff will have to trade his business suit for prison garb. Republicans inside and outside the administration said that would be the moment when Bush has to decide.

“Obviously, there’d be a significant political price to pay,” said William P. Barr, who as attorney general to President George H.W. Bush remembers the controversy raised by the post-election pardons for several Iran-contra figures in 1992. “I personally am very sympathetic to Scooter Libby. But it would be a tough call to do it at this stage.”

At the same time, some White House advisers said the president’s political troubles are already so deep that a pardon might not be so damaging. Those most upset by the CIA leak case that led to the Libby conviction already oppose Bush, they noted. “You can’t hang a man twice for the same crime,” a Republican close to the White House said.

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Yes, but this is near treason.

This Bullsh$% is Why Our Taxes are So F&%%ing high

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Seriously. This, “But Wait, There’s More” Crap has to stop. It does nothing but delay programs, increase prices and contractor profits, and get cushy jobs for retired generals.

The system is out of bloody control.

US Navy requests enhanced P-8A
System upgrade announced before baseline design set

The US Navy is seeking funds to launch a major mission system upgrade to its future submarine-hunting fleet of Boeing P-8A Poseidon multi-mission maritime aircraft, even though the baseline design for the modified 737 airliner will not be finalised until late June.

The navy plans to conduct a week-long critical design review on the P-8A from 11 June, to enable Boeing to freeze its design and start building the first test aircraft before year-end, says Chuck Dabundo, the company’s deputy programme manager. A one-week rehearsal conducted in mid-May went smoothly, he adds.

Meanwhile, the USN’s fiscal year 2008 budget request includes funds to launch the first of several planned upgrade “spirals” aimed at keeping the P-8A fleet current with emerging threats. The Spiral 1 upgrade request introduces new multi-static software algorithms to improve onboard processing capability for the acoustic sensors that will hunt for submarines from 2015, says Capt Mike Moran, the navy’s P-8A integrated product team leader.

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I Will Not Donate to Any Candidate Directly or Indirectly Employing James Carville

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And neither should you.

The Smoking Gun has copies of the Scooter Libby Love Letters – June 5, 2007.

One of these is signed by James Carville.

I don’t care if the only woman willing to f&^% you in the world is a conservative Republican. You don’t write nice letters about someone committing treason.

Libby, under the instructions of Dick Cheney, outed a CIA covert operative to get back at her husband.

The Libby Over/Under

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I’m going for 28 months, and that the judge gives him 6 weeks to show up with his toothbrush.

UPDATE:

The overs win. 30 months, from CNN.

According to Firedog Lake, no bond pending appeal

As to bond pending appeal, Walton basically said no, but Defense can submit a memo. That is due on Thrsday, and then the govt’s is due on Tuesday, with Libby’s response due on Wednesday. If Walton decides against bond pending appeal after reading those motions, then it all goes to the prison system and Libby goes to jail in normal schedule, which would be about 45-60 days.